Paul Timmons
His birthday is March 10,
Home: Timmons lives in Johns Island, S.C.
Family: Paul is married to Kelly. The couple has two children, a daughter, Holly, and a son, George.

Disability: Timmons has residual quadriplegia as a result of Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a condition in which the body's immune system attacks part of the peripheral nervous system, resulting in paralysis.

Employment: Timmons is a commercial real estate broker/developer. He also serves as CEO of Portlight Strategieshttp://www.portlight.org, Inc., a nonprofit organization which develops and manages a number of disability-related, community-building projects across the country, including the 2000 Spirit of ADA 10th Anniversary Torch Relay and the 2003 Disability Leadership Summit. Portlight is probably best known for its’ initiative focusing on the post disaster needs of people with disabilities.  It has been involved in a number of post disaster scenario, including the Asian tsunami, Hurricane Ike and the Haiti earthquake. The organization grew out of relationships developed from the 1996 Paralympic Games in Atlanta.

Timmons has also worked in a variety of political press positions in Georgia and Washington, D.C. throughout the 1980s. In 1989, he founded Resources Publishing Group, Inc. and grew the company into a national publisher of several subscription newsletters covering a variety of topics involving health care policy and political finance. Also, the company published a regional bimonthly magazine covering the disability advocacy community in the southeastern United States. The company was sold in 1995.

Hobbies: Timmons enjoys sailing and expressing righteous indignation.

Favorite quote: "This isn't brain surgery."
Greatest accomplishment in life: Timmons said he is proud of raising "two kids who are turning out wonderfully."
Role models: Mark Johnson, disability advocacy coordinator for Atlanta's Shepherd Center, is someone Timmons admires. He explained of Johnson: "His life has mattered."
Future goals: Timmons described two aspirations: "To spend a year with my wife Kelly cruising the Caribbean in our sailboat and to grow old enough to become a burden to my kids.”
What has been your greatest challenge with your disability and how have you faced it? With his Guillain-Barre Syndrome, Timmons explained he experiences a sense from some within the disability community that he is "not disabled enough" and a sense from some without the community that he is "not really disabled." He said he just tries to ignore these reactions.
How would you ultimately like people to remember you? Timmons said he hopes he is remembered "as a good husband, a good father and a good Catholic.”